Is it ice cream time again? Any healthier versions you can recommend?

Jun 15, 2013 3:55 PM

About a year ago, @morriea asked "What is the best ice cream flavor?. The heat here is overpowering and I've been catching up on yard work, so I would cheerfully crawl into a bowl of ANY flavor and not venture out for a while. I have several favorites as far as store-bought ice cream. BlueBell Homemade Vanilla is always on that list, but for pure indulgence I LOVE Ben & Jerry's Karmal Sutra. OMG yummy!

Lately I've been trying to find lower fat treats, and have found some that are incredibly good. Edy's makes a line of ice cream with 1/2 the fat of their regular versions, and I can happily report that their Caramel Delight, Mint Chocolate Chip, and Cookies and Cream are all wonderful! Skinny Cow is a popular brand, but my personal favorite treat right now is Weight Watchers (Yes! THAT Weight Watchers!!) Dark Chocolate Dulce de Leche Ice Cream Bars! Only 120 calories, 4.5 fat grams and oh-so-rich!

Top Answers

Nahh, when it comes to ice cream, sorbet, gelato, etc, healthy has nothing to do with my choices. If it's tasty & I'm in the mood for it, I'm getting it. I'm lucky to be in a city where I can pop out to any number of amazing places for handmade, artisanal, delicious whatever. I do prefer going out for ice creams stuffs rather than eating it at home. There's something so summer-perfect about getting a cup or cornet of something & sitting on a stoop or wandering the neighbourhood, idly eating, chatting, & people-watching in the sunshine.

For the occasional home eats, though, I'm currently adoring Haagen Dazs' Salted Caramel Truffle. I like to take my time picking out & sucking on all the mini-truffles first, then slurping the remaining melt-y soup.

I must say, I'm incredibly jealous of your heat at the moment. Here in Chicago, we've had the worst start of the season. I'm yearning for 80s-90s & sunny, but all we're getting is 60s & cloudy or storms. It's a hard-knock life, yo.

We love orange sherbet, which is lower in fat than ice cream, but I can recommend the Weight Watchers Ice Cream Candy Bars. Yummmmmmm! 150 calories, but I can eat half of one and have enough cold sweetness to last me a while! Their English Toffee Crunch Bars are great, too.

I've tried the Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwich thingies, and they taste ok, but the cookie part sticks to the roof of my mouth like peanut butter. Urgh!

@belyndag: I always throw an orange Gatorade in the freezer before cutting the grass. When I am done, I come in the house all hot and sweaty and am rewarded with orange slushy goodness!

As for ice cream, I always enjoy Haagen Dazs Mango Sorbet as a hot weather refresher. I used to really like Starbucks Java Chip, but haven't had it in quite some time. And my newest favorite is Ben and Jerry's Liz Lemon Greek Frozen Yogurt. It's lemon with a blueberry/lavender swirl.

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We love orange sherbet, which is lower in fat than ice cream, but I can recommend the Weight Watchers Ice Cream Candy Bars. Yummmmmmm! 150 calories, but I can eat half of one and have enough cold sweetness to last me a while! Their English Toffee Crunch Bars are great, too.

I've tried the Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwich thingies, and they taste ok, but the cookie part sticks to the roof of my mouth like peanut butter. Urgh!

@blgauthier: Yum! Orange and lime sherbet! (Not too crazy about pineapple or raspberry.) And I had forgotten about the WW Ice Cream Candy Bars. Those are great, too. '

A bit off topic (well, it's MY topic so I can segue if I want to!), but I've also found some popsicles that I love. I haven't eaten popsicles in years, but found these a while back at Wally-World and got hooked on them. Budget Saver Monster Pops in Cherry-Pineapple. Fat free and only 60 calories! A bit of sugar, unfortunately (13g), but if you give them a couple of minute out of the freezer (or 10 seconds in the microwave) they get slushy and easy to eat. I call them my hot flash pills. LOL! A dozen come in a bag and we go through at least two bags a week since DH and DS love them, too. If they were sugar-free I could be losing some serious weight. (They also come in mango and lemon-lime, but the mango isn't sweet enough and I prefer my lemons in ice box pies and my limes in margaritas.)

Nahh, when it comes to ice cream, sorbet, gelato, etc, healthy has nothing to do with my choices. If it's tasty & I'm in the mood for it, I'm getting it. I'm lucky to be in a city where I can pop out to any number of amazing places for handmade, artisanal, delicious whatever. I do prefer going out for ice creams stuffs rather than eating it at home. There's something so summer-perfect about getting a cup or cornet of something & sitting on a stoop or wandering the neighbourhood, idly eating, chatting, & people-watching in the sunshine.

For the occasional home eats, though, I'm currently adoring Haagen Dazs' Salted Caramel Truffle. I like to take my time picking out & sucking on all the mini-truffles first, then slurping the remaining melt-y soup.

I must say, I'm incredibly jealous of your heat at the moment. Here in Chicago, we've had the worst start of the season. I'm yearning for 80s-90s & sunny, but all we're getting is 60s & cloudy or storms. It's a hard-knock life, yo.

Ooooh, and popsicles, yes! Those I devour like water-replacement bars in summer. I just get boxes of the Aldi generic ones (flavourice, I think?) and always keep a bunch in the freezer. Ice cream is for going out, but popsicles are for binging on in and around the house, all summer long!

@goldenthorn: Salted Caramel Truffle! Yum! That sounds heavenly! And don't be jealous of our heat. Seriously! It's approaching 100 degrees suddenly and with humidity over 90% even the shady spots aren't much help.

Re: Popsicles -- DH sells safety equipment and supplies, including a sports-type replacement drink (think of Gatorade) called Sqwincher. Woot actually sold some of their energy shots a couple of times (although these haven't been a big seller for the company. The products are usually only available to industries, not at your local grocer, but you might want to look for them. They make multi-flavored popsicles "freezer pop" style that are a Godsend when working in the heat! Electrolyte replacement, etc., along with the super-cold of a popsicle and the convenience of a freezer pop!

@belyndag: I always throw an orange Gatorade in the freezer before cutting the grass. When I am done, I come in the house all hot and sweaty and am rewarded with orange slushy goodness!

As for ice cream, I always enjoy Haagen Dazs Mango Sorbet as a hot weather refresher. I used to really like Starbucks Java Chip, but haven't had it in quite some time. And my newest favorite is Ben and Jerry's Liz Lemon Greek Frozen Yogurt. It's lemon with a blueberry/lavender swirl.

Crown Creamery Frozen Greek Blueberry Yogurt bars. They are yummy and healthy- Fat free, 6g ( !) protein , and only 110 calories. So creamy and wonderful. I googled and can't find them, so they may be a regional thing. Got them at the grocery store.

Another fav is Weight Watchers Dark Chocolate Raspberry bars. They are on a stick and only 90 cal. Not very filling but refreshing and tasty. I like the Greek bars better -- more too them and creamier. But I do like the chocolate/ raspberry combo.

At home I have those. I agree that going out for ice cream in the summer is grand. No low cal on those occasions. We have a local candy store that has a local dairy make ice cream flavors w/ their candy in it. Superb.

Worked in the heat today so I treated myself to some B&J Karmel Sutra when I got home. If you've never had this one, it's two different ice creams, caramel and chocolate with chips, split down the middle by a tube of rich, gooey caramel. I eat the chocolate side for a while and think that nothing could be better than this, then I switch to the caramel side and think OMG this is even better, then back to the other side.....

If there is one recurring them in my preferences, it is a chocolate/caramel thing. (I have two boxes of Fleur de Sel Chocolates in my freezer from Woot's last offering.) Then, of course, I suddenly have a craving for a tart and fresh sherbet or popsicle. Yum! When I was a kid there was an ice cream shop in my town that offered strawberry sherbet. I've never found anything like it since.

Not sure how widely available Blue Bell ice cream is. I know the folks in Texas can get it. They make a Mardi Gras King Cake ice cream seasonally that is wonderful! I stock up!

You originally mentioned healthier alternatives to the good stuff. I have a Cuisinart electric ice cream maker and I have discovered making my own frozen yogurt. I use 2 cups of light yogurt (like strawberry shortcake, Yoplait has lots of great light flavors), 1 cup of Almond Milk, and fresh fruit (strawberries or bananas). In about 20 minutes I have a delicious frozen treat that makes me feel like I'm being really bad.

@hot72chev: Thanks so much for mentioning the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. I bought one on another deal a day site a few months ago, stuck the base thingie in the freezer, and promptly forgot it. I finally pulled it out a few weeks ago and made strawberry frozen yogurt using fat-free Greek yogurt and fresh strawberries. I thought it was pretty darn good but no one else liked it. "Too yogurt? Too sweet? Too tart? Too strawberryish?" I asked. "Yes!" they said. (sigh)

I would welcome any suggestions you have for recipes! Oh, and some help with the gadget, too. For some reason the blade in mine, which I think is supposed to stay still while the barrel spins, keeps spinning with the barrel unless I hold it in place. Urgh! Maybe I didn't assemble something correctly. Anyway, I bought the thing with the hope that I could create some healthy cold treats for the family, but the frozen yogurt I made wasn't the sweet creamy dessert they wanted. Suggestions?

Don't confuse "fat free" with healthy. Avoiding fat consumption is actually bad for you (well, except certain kinds of fats). And really, there's no such thing as "healthier" ice cream. It's terrible for you. Have it once in a while as a treat, or maybe try making your own with a lower sugar content.

@stryker4526: My thought is to reduce or eliminate the bad fats where I can, so I can relax about them elsewhere. Ordinarily ice cream is one of the places where I totally enjoy the fats, but some of the new ice cream treats with reduced fat are awesome.

We've had a tough time finding healthy treats for my mother, since she has to monitor sugar intake, fat, sodium and calories. Pretty much all that's left is water, lol! It was shopping for her that led me to some of the great alternatives I've found.

"healthy" is in the eye of the beholder.. sure there's light and fat free offerings but with all the chemicals and nasty stuff they aren't really healthy.... when you want ice cream splurge on some haagen daz - the one with only 5 ingredients. Delicious!

@belyndag: The blade on my Cuisinart kind of does the same thing. I resorted to reading the instructions (snort) and it said as long as the circular end is facing upwards, you have done it correctly.

I made up the frozen yogurt recipe above and am still experimenting. Not everyone enjoys almond milk as I do, and some do not enjoy greek yogurt, so I guess it's just a matter of taste. Sometimes I add a little Splenda or a dash of vanilla. I was disappointed that my pineapple concoction (pineapple yogurt and canned crushed pineapple) was not as good as I had expected. The best I have made had one cup of strawberry yogurt, one cup of strawberry shortcake yogurt (Yoplait light, not greek), one cup almond milk, dash of vanilla, one banana and one cup fresh strawberries.

It's a far cry from "the good stuff" but I am restricting my sugar intake (pre-diabetic). I totally agree with @stryker4956 regarding "fat free". You really have to educate yourself and watch the labels.

I know this sounds weird, but my wife and I have been on a clean eating challenge and she has found a amazing recipe for clean ice cream. Take one or two frozen bananas, a dash of vanilla and a fourth of a cup of milk, almond milk, coconut, soy milk. Plus any other flavorings you want to add. Put in a blender, but don't add all the milk, and blend toll it looks like ice cream. Add a bit more milk if it is too thick. This stuff tastes almost like vanilla ice cream by itself. We make it with coco powder and some peanut butter, and have a guilt free chocolate fat elvis.

@belyndag: If watching out for calories is what you're worried about, they've got a few super-low calorie "ice creams" out - Breyer's I think has a couple, 80/90 calorie.. one of 'em was pretty good, the other tasted like a combination of 50% whipped cream/50% Ice Cream.. definitely wasn't bad, but it was different.
Lately I've been getting a container of some quality ice cream, then buying a bag of freeze-dried stawberries and mixing 'em.. it's good :)

@goldenthorn: Where're you from? I've got a bunch of artisanal/high end ice cream shops around me too - haven't been to many of 'em though. I've been seeing Salt & Straw on TV like crazy and been meaning to make a point of going there - there's supposed to be some made with a bunch of local microbrews that's really good.

@drchops: Breyer's is one of our favorite brands, but I've never tried their low-sugar options. Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip is DH's absolute favorite ice cream in the world! It's quite different from other mint chocolate chip ice creams -- so light and crisp it's almost like a sherbet instead of an ice cream. If they make a low-sugar option that's similar, I might be able to persuade him to try it.

Am I the only one who has noticed that you can't seem to have lower sugar, lower fat, lower calorie and lower salt all in the same store bought item? It seems that, in order to reduce one or two of these, they INCREASE one or two of the others. Urgh!

I know I'm a few days late coming back to this - but I had a minute to look up Only 8's website and wanted to share. This stuff is yummy and whether you're watching calories (32 cals per 1/2 cup) or carbs (7 per 1/2 cup) you're set. It's also diabetic and lactose intolerant friendly.

@jdsl1998: I had forgotten about this conversation! I actually found the website for the company that makes MonsterPops (they seem to be a nice small company) and sent them an email several months ago. At that time they told me that they were making sugar free popsicles and to ask for them in my local store. They also added me to their mailing list and have been regularly sending me HUGE discount coupons for their products, including an occasional coupon for a FREE bag of popsicles! Yum! The sugar free aren't quite as good as the regular pops, and the calories aren't terribly lower, but we keep some of those in the freezer, along with the others. Thanks for the reminder! Think I'll have one NOW!

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